I is for Income Tax!
Yes! Because it's that time of the year again, as a million pieces of junk mail, banner ads and spam emails make painfully clear. We gotta get it done early, we gotta get the maximum refund, we gotta do it from the convenience of our own home, and for free using this infallible special software! Or else we gotta visit the friendly staff at H&R Block, who will happily take a large bite out of your refund for the privilege of filling out a few fields of their electronic forms. Most of which are already filled in from last year! What a deal!
Last year I paid them roughly $200 for ten minutes' work and a significantly smaller refund than I was hoping for. Don't know whether they're to blame for that but I still wasn't all that happy about it. I haven't decided whether I'll do that again, frankly. I know piss-all about doing my taxes, so yeah, I probably will have to bite the bullet. At least I can be fairly certain of a refund, rather than actually owing. Because that would just suck.
But none of that is the actual subject of my blog. I'm not even going to get into the inherently anti-Constitutional nature of Income Tax itself. Nope, this is about the "gotta laugh or I'll cry" condition of the state treasury.
California, as probably everyone has heard, is going bankrupt by the end of February. This is the alarming news trumpeted from news headlines and on talk radio, but no one seems to want to say how this will affect the common man -- except in one fashion: Supposedly the state wants to give us I.O.U.s for our state tax return this year.
I'm guessing Schwarzenegger ain't getting reelected. Hell, I'd be surprised if he even runs.
Okay, that's silly enough but then I get this thingy in the mail the other day. It's some weird, nigh incomprehensible form (I don't speak bullshit -- also known as legalese), but near as I can see, it indicates how much money I got last year for my state tax return, and warns me that I must report this amount or face penalties.
So, wait -- let me get this straight: The State of California considers my tax return to be taxable income? I'm going to have to check this out with someone who knows, but that's sure what it looks like right now.
Am I missing some vital datum when it comes to tax returns? Because I thought they gave me money back because I overpaid them. So that would mean it's not additional income, but a return of previously earned income. It's like buying a toaster, finding it defective, and getting your $30 back from the store. How is this "new income"? If anything, it's still money lost because of the added time and effort -- and that's just the toaster metaphor; I gotta pay some dude to do my taxes, so I'm totally losing money to get my bloody tax return.
I know there are no easy answers in politics, the way things are now. Everything is all complicated and there are special-interest groups all over the damned place. Everyone wants a piece of the pie, everyone wants their laws in place which may have intended or unintended consequences for someone else. If nothing else, money is spent and since money is poorly understood and fucks mightily with peoples' heads anyway, our country and every part of it is currently strapped for cash (apparently).
I know these guys do not have an easy job, that they're only human. But for fuck's sake, can they not think? For the money I'm giving them -- the money everyone is giving -- I frankly expect a lot better service. But we all know what happens at the DMV, for example.
Personally, I'd agree that a government has to be supported; that's fine and good and understandable. But when the government turns it into extortion and yet searches for still other means to live off the sweat of my brow, other than by properly providing valuable services, that's when I start to disagree. No, I don't think my money is being wisely spent. If it were, California would not be facing bankruptcy.
Go ahead. Disagree. I wanna hear your reasoning. I will grant that I myself, couldn't do a better job -- but I never said I could. Those in power, who are not overwhelming me with their awesomeness, did. So yeah, I do feel somewhat justified in stepping back and saying WTF.
This is not a call to arms. I'm not advocating treason against state or country. I don't advise anyone break any laws -- quite the opposite. I just wish, as I always wish, that the stupidity would go away. I've better things to do. We all do.
*Abecedarian means of or pertaining to the alphabet. In case you didn't know.
